The Imagemaker

With our new president! It is important that we capitalize on this historic moment. My current recommendation for reading would be "The Covenant with Black America".

The first thing people see about you leads to their forever impression of you. If your website is homemade...everybody knows it. Dykes is my name, not what I am! I am straight not gay, happily married for 16 yrs & my 3 kids are my joy! I started my own business a couple of years ago and this has allowed me the opportunity to stay home and give to my family first and then to the community. I believe God blesses us to bless others. If you have more money than you could possibly spend, why would you keep it to yourself? I look at all of these reality shows with people spending extravagant amounts of money on things I couldn't imagine even having. I look at how it is nothing to them to spend it. Why not help others with it?

Camille Dykes, Owner, earned her B. S. Psychology at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In her pursuit of a career in corporate America, she gained valuable experience of the inner workings of a small successful business in areas such as business development, marketing, training, desktop publishing, corporate communication, website design and research. As a result of the "Great Downsizing" of big businesses after the historic 9/11 tragedy, Camille has independently provided business services to small businesses. (Necessity is the Mother of Invention). Ms. Dykes completed her studies by earning her Master's of Business Administration in June of 2003. Her areas of concentration in her studies were eCommerce and Marketing. Able to capitalize on her specialized mix of education and experience, Ms. Dykes pursues her goal of helping the small business owner take advantage of business knowledge only afforded to the corporate world.

I would say my talent lies in my design and the unique way I look at things. I naturally see the links, relationships and patterns between different ideas. I am the type that sees the "big picture." You've heard the saying "Can't see the forest for the trees". Well, I see both and can take each little "tree" and make the "forest" however I want.

I believe that a business owner can be their own worst enemy. You must know your weakness, admit it and delegate. The only problem is "You gotta pay, to play." Rather than waste your time figuring out and teaching yourself how to do something (and do it badly), you should pay a professional to do it right. You waste ten times as much time learning it than you would by paying someone who knows how to do. Now when you put that into perspective, time is money and it can only be spent once. How much money have you wasted trying to learn to do it yourself. By paying a professional and doing what you're good at...you spend time making more money and looking good. Without others your business can't get off the ground like you would want it to.

My business goal is to help aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners overcome any obstacles to becoming great in their own pursuit. Small business has its own challenges that can prevent these goals, but mostly they are prevented from these achievements by a lack of resources in some form (finances, time, or knowledge.) I am a Small Business Consultant that specializes in small business marketing. I offer consulting and business writing (in different forms for different purposes), business support and marketing services. Read more about what I do below. Even better visit my website http://www.dykesdesktop.com or http://www.dykeswebshop.com

I like to make YOU look good! It gives me personal satisfaction in creating and building the image of companies and individuals. I stand back and say "Boy, they look good. And everyone knows it. I did that!" Your client will not pay attention to WHO made you look good but they will be mesmerized by your image. People like winners. The image you portray plays a major role in that. To be a winner you have to look the part. In order to accomplish this, you must surround yourself with professionals.

By the year 2005, I was over 500 pounds! I felt trapped in my own body. I was desperate. I thought about how they say you are supposed to lose 1-2 pounds a week to be healthy. At that rate, it would have taken me over 3 years to lose the weight I needed to lose. So was blessed to be able to have gastric bypass surgery. I was hard at first going through the healing process and adjusting to new eating habits. After 2 years, I had lost 230 pounds. I'm now at 275. I still have 100 pounds to go. But compared to where I was, I am doing great! In fact in 2007, I carried my youngest child. She was born New Years' Eve. I'll add pics. In just 4 months, I've lost the weight I gained with her (40 pounds).

As stated above, I specialize in small business marketing. This seems to meet the most immediate need of most small businesses. Dykes' Webshop is the subsidiary of Dykes' Desktop that provides web consulting services to the entrepreneur, small business owner, and business start-ups. We offer a full portfolio of services that includes web design, web maintenance, internet marketing, web hosting and domain registration. We also offer desktop publishing, design services (such as corporate identity and logo creation)and print services.

The main focus of Dykes' Desktop is small business consulting and business writing. In my consulting, I mainly discuss business strategy. Although business plans are used for attracting investors, they have other purposes. You should really reformulate your business plan annually because as your business changes so does your plan for your business. We grow and learn every year. Your business plan should be written for yourself and not just for investors. As a consultant, I can teach you how to do that.

Dykes' BizStop is just that. It is the Business Support subsidiary. Dykes' BizStop is essential to the busy business owner/entrepreneur. We provide affordable virtual assistant packages that keeps the entrepreneur organized. We manage you electronically: cleaning and managing your emailbox, writing emails, posting to your calendar, managing meetings, contacts, tasks and task requests, listening and transcribing voicemail. All through the coordination of your PDA! We also create files, make copies, and notarize documents.